Bayshore Gardening Center to host free classes

October 16, 2012

The free Fall Classes Series is back at Bayshore Garden Center, a popular fall tradition for area residents.

The classes are held Saturday mornings, each starting at 9 a.m. and lasting about an hour.

On Oct. 20, it's all roses.

"Rose gardening is a new class, by popular demand," said owner Terry Chepy. It is called "The A.B.C.'s of Gardening With Roses" class.

"If you've asked yourself, 'Can roses grow in SW Florida?', 'Why has my rose garden failed?', or even, 'How do I prune roses?' . . . then this is the class for you. Ken Ellam is our resident expert," he said. "I call him the professor. He's very knowledgeable and understands the intricacies of growing roses."

Chepy said the biggest thing is that people think the roses are hard to grow, but once they learn a few of the basics, they will discover they are easy to grow and provide years of beauty.

"In Florida, roses are a little bit different. Successful gardening of roses depends on them being grafted fortuniana - that's grafting onto a different root stock. If you don't, they won't survive down here.

"We are going to teach them that, how to grow them and fertilize them. "There will also be talk about patent roses, which are different types; roses have a culture."

He explained that many have interesting names, such as "Belinda's Dream" and "Chrysler Imperial." There's even a "Julia Child" - they are named after different people.

They have different looks, different smells, different colors.

The other scheduled classes are:

- Container Gardening: Saturday, Oct. 27

- Florida Native Plants: Saturday, Nov. 10

- Herb/Vegetable Gardening: Satur-day, Nov. 17

"We also are holding a contest the month of October where we are teaming up with 93.7 LITE FM radio where you can register at the center for a weekly drawing, and at the end of the month (Oct. 28) we'll draw for a Free Landscape and Design Plan, and the grand prize of two tickets to the Miami Dolphins/Seattle Seahawks game in November along with His/Hers Miami jerseys."

Bayshore Garden Center is located at 5870 Bayshore Rd. The classes are free, and pre-registration is requested by calling 543-1443.